Angola begins documenting Somali refugees

By PFJ Reporters

Angola began this week issuing permits to Somali refugees in its country following talks between the Angolan government and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), reports say. The Angolan government has already issued refugee status permit to over 400 Somalis to allow them work and stay in the country legally.

Somali community members welcomed the Angolan government’s decision to recognize Somali refugees in the country by allowing them to get legal documents that are vital for their stay in Angola.

The community chairman said the decision to document Somali refugees in the country came as a result of their continued campaign through the UNHCR and relevant Angolan authorities to have Somalis recognized as refugees

And in Somalia the Cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister Prof. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali held a meeting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, at the weekend to discuss the end of the transition achieved by the Transitional Federal Government, an event marked by the establishment of a Federal Parliament on August 20. The Cabinet chaired by Prof. Ali foresaw a democratic process leading up to the election of a Speaker and two deputies.

“We are also looking forward to an equally democratic progression running up to the election of a new president of Somalia,” reads a press statement by the cabinet on Saturday. PM Ali underlined that the end of the transition was achieved through a sound collaboration between the TFG’s state organs.

He said his cabinet would smoothly hand over power when in the coming weeks a new president is elected and a new cabinet formed. “My (caretaker) government is ready to hand over power to a new Federal Government when formed,” promised the caretaker premier.

On August 1, a provisional constitution, which replaced the eight-year-old Transitional Federal Charter, was adopted by an 825-member Constituent Assembly in Mogadishu.